The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, April 25, 2001, Page 4, Image 4
China protests Taiwan arms deal
by Carolyn Skorneck
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — China protested
to the State Department the projected
sale of weapons to Taiwan. *
Ambassador Yang Jiechi registered
his government’s objection in a meeting
Tuesday with Undersecretary of State
Marc Grossman.
Philip Reeker, a State Department
spokesman, said it could be described as
a “formal protest.”
Grossman, for his part, told the
Chinese envoy there is a good deal of
work China and the United States can
do together, Reeker said.
Grossman also told Y&ng the United
States expects China to return the U.S.
Navy reconnaissance plane that made an
emergency landing in southern China
April 1 and has been held since.
Reacting to grumbling from Beijing,
the White House said Tuesday that the
new U.S. arms sales to Taiwan were
spurred, in part, by the 300 Chinese
missiles aimed at the disputed island across
the Taiwan Straits.
White House spokesman Ari
Fleischer said President Bush approved
the sale of four Kidd-class destroyers, up
to eight diesel submarines, 12 P-3 anti
submarine aircraft, helicopters, assault
vehicles and other arms based on “the
threat that is posed to Taiwan” by the
missiles.
“That certainly was a factor,”
Fleischer said. “The president believes
very strongly that die best way to promote
peace and stability is to make certain that
Taiwan lias the means necessary to secure
its defense needs.”
Bush’s decision was delivered
Tuesday to the Taiwanese by a Pentagon
delegation led by a deputy assistant
secretary in a meeting at the National
Defense University. The president
deferred sales of the item Taiwan wants
most: liigli-tech U.S. destroyers equipped
with the Aegis combat radar system.
It’s now up to Taiwan to decide what
it wants to buy, Fleischer said. He didn’t
give a possible date for such purchases
or say whether U.S. officials had fonnally
notified China.
“I think they’ve heard about it,”
Fleischer said.
In Beijing, Cltinese Foreign Ministry
spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue advised
the Bush administration to “exercise
prudence” and warned of “new harm
for relations” with the United States.
Arms sales to Taiwan will “seriously
undermine China’s sovereignty, interfere
in China’s internal affairs and will give
rise to tension across the Taiwan Straits,”
she said.
The sale of the Aegis to Taiwan,
which China considers a rebellious
province, could worsen U.S.-Chinese
relations already strained by the collision
between a U.S. spy plane mid a Cliinese
jet that led to the 11 -day detention of 24
American military personnel.
The White House took pains to
assuage Beijing’s concerns about the amis
package. But the Wliite House also matte
clear that future stiles to Taiwan of the
state-of-the-art Aegis system still are
possible given China’s recent arms
buildup.
Reformer to become next
Japanese prime minister
V
by Joseph Coleman
Associated Press
TOKYO — Dealing a blow to Japan's
political elite, maverick reformer
Junichiro Koizumi defeated a former
premier to win the ruling party presidency
Tuesday, guaranteeing his election as the
next prime minister.
The 293-155 vote by party members
over former Prime Minister Ryutaro
Hashimoto capped a stunning upset by
Koizumi, wlio was hoisted to the pinnacle
of the Liberal Democratic Party by an
overwhelming show of support by the
2.3 million rank-and-file members in the
primaries.
The election reflects growing public
disgust with the political establishment
and the sour economy and the LDP’s
i desperate attempt to revamp its stick-in
the-mud image ahead of upper house
Parliamentary elections this summer.
“This election was held against an
unprecedented headwind,” Koizumi, 59,
said. “I promised to change the party and
to change Japan, and, fortunately, many
party members supported my call.”
Koizumi, certain to be formally
named prime minister later tliis week by
the LDP-dominated Parliament, takes
office as Japan is wallowing in a
decade-long economic slowdown.
Unemployment is high, a hoped-for
recovery has fizzled and the financial
system is riddled with bad debts.
Japan’s political system is also in
trouble. Koizumi is the ninth prime
ministers in just 10 years. He takes over
from Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, whose
dismal year in office has been defined by
a string of scandals, political gaffes and
support ratings in the single digits.
‘This election was held against an unprecedented
headwind I promised to change the party and to
change Japan, and fortunately, many party members
supported my call.’
Junichiro Koizumi
Japanese prime-minister elect
South Pole doctor
waits for rescue
■ Plane takes off
after 2-day delay
by Kevin Gray
Associated Press
PUNTA ARENAS, Chile - A
small propeller plane fitted with skis
for an icy landing flew Tuesday to the
South Pole to rescue a sick American
doctor, setting out after two days of
howling winds and blinding snow
eased enough to attempt the liarrowing
journey to the bottom of the world.
Flying into the pitch black of the
polar winter, the eight-seat Twin Otter
began its 10-hour flight front Rothera
base on the Antarctic peninsula across
from Chile to the pole.
Even with the improved weather,
temperatures at the South Pole dipped
to minus 76 degrees, or 119 degrees
I-V
below zero with wind chill.
Forecasters said visibility had improved
to five miles with gusting winds and
blowing snow.
It was the second dramatic rescue
attempt in 24 hours: Earlier Tuesday,
a New Zealand air force plane
successfully evacuated 11 American
staffers from a research station on the
other side of the frozen continent.
Flights to the South Pole are
normally halted front late February
until November because of the
extreme cold and darkness. But health
emergencies at the isolated, frigid
Antarctic outposts forced rescuers in
both operations to make the dangerous
flights.
“They’re off,” said Valerie Guroll,
a spokeswoman for U.S.-based
Raytheon Polar Services as the
Plane seepages
World Briefs
■ Peru disagrees
with U.S. on facts
of plane shooting
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush
administration and Peruvian authorities
are in sharp disagreement over whether
Peru’s military violated established rules
in shooting down an American missionary
plane.
Peru’s air force expressed regret
Monday for the deaths of American
missionary Veronica Bowers and her 7
month-old daughter, Cliarity, but it denied
suggestions in Washington that it failed
to follow established rules of engagement
in the Friday incident.
White House spokesman Ari
Fleischer said the U.S. crew of a CIA
operated surveillance aircraft tracking
the missionary plane “did its best to make
certain that all the rules were followed.”
■ Violence used
to force resignation
of Bangladesh PM
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) -
Nine small bombs exploded in Dhaka on
Monday as the opposition began a tliree
day, nationwide strike aimed at forcing
the resignation of Bangladesh’s prime
minister, police and witnesses said.
One unidentified protester was killed
by police gunfire on the outskirts of
Dhaka, and eight others were injured.
Two police officers were wounded
when opposition supporters ignited a tin
pot stuffed with explosives and nails ne;ir
a luxury hotel, authorities said.
Eight other blasts near a closed market
wounded six people, police said. The
bombs were made of the kind of
gunpowder used in firecrackers.
Reprimand of sub commander
criticized by Japanese families
■ USS Greeneville
officers won't face
courts-martial
BY CHIKAKO MOGI
Associated Press
TOKYO — Relatives of the nine people
killed when a U.S. Navy submarine sank
a high school fisheries training vessel
complained Tuesday that punishment for
the captain was too lenient. But the
Japanese government said it wouldn’t
seek a stiffer penalty.
USS Greeneville Cmdr. Scott Waddle
was given a letter of reprimand Monday
as punishment for the February collision
that killed nine people aboard the Ehime
Maru in waters off Hawaii.
He w;ts also told he would have to
forfeit half his pay for two months, but
that punishment was suspended —
meaning Waddle will receive full pay until
he retires on Oct. 1.
There were strong feelings in Japan
that Waddle should face a court-martial
for failing to detect the Eiime Maru before
his submarine surfaced rapidly in a
demonstration of emergency procedures
for the benefit of 16 civilians aboard. All
other officers of the Greeneville also
escaped courts-martial.
“It’s unforgivable that the matter
should be settled with this sort of
punishment after so many questions were
left unanswered by the court of inquiry,”
said Ryosuke Terata, whose 17-year-old
son Yusuke was lost in the accident.
Some said the reprimand only
confirmed their suspicion that the U.S.
Navy would protect its own.
“Since the captain was being
judged by his peers, I wasn’t expecting
much to come out of the trial,” said
Kazuhiko Segawa, son of 60-year-old
HirotakaSegawa, chief of communications
aboard the Eliime Maru.
The Japanese government said it won’t
demand tougher punishment for Waddle.
“The Japanese government considers
that the U.S. government has
acknowledged all responsibilities regarding
tliis incident,” said Kazuhiko Koshikawa,
spokesman for Prime Minister Yoshiro
Mori.
Court OKs arrests for minor offenses
by Anne Gearan
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - A divided Supreme
Court ruled Tuesday that police can arrest
and handcuff people for minor traffic
offenses, saying the authority flows
naturally from the right to pull someone
over.
The court ruled 5-4 in the case of a
Texas woman handcuffed in front of her
small children iuid briefly jailed for failing
to wear a scat belt.
Gail Atwater said the belts were
unfastened only to help the family peer
out for a distraught 4 year old's lost toy.
A police officer saw her as cndiuigering
her children iuid ordered her to jail.
“The question is whether the Fourth
Amendment forbids a wamuillcss arrest
for a minor criminal ollensc, such as a
misdemeanor seat bell violation punishable
only by a fine. We hold that it does
not,’’ Justice David II. Souler wrote for
the court majority.
Unpersuadcd, Justice Sandra Day
O'Connor wrote for the minority that the
ruling “cloaks the pointless indignity that
Gail Atwater suffered with the mantle of
reasonableness.”
The decision could affect any of the
nation’s 185 million licensed drivers.
Texas is one of several states with laws
specifically allowing this kind of arrest,
and tlic Supreme Court ruling means other
states could pass similar laws without fear
of constitutional problems.
Although Atwater is white, Steven
Shapiro, legal director for the American
Civil Liberties Union, said lie was
concerned that police stopping minority
drivers through racial profiling would use
the case to justify arrests.
Tlic issue for tlic court wasn’t whcllicr
Officer Bart Turek had the right to stop
Atwater in the 1997 incident in Lugo
Vista, Texas. He did, because with one
look at 4-ycar-old Muckinlcy's liice pressed
against tlic windshield of Atwater's pickup
truck, Turek saw a clear violation.
Atwater conceded that point, but said
I’urok didn’t have the right to arrest her
and place her in a cell for an hour before
she posted bail. That was, in effect, a
punishment worse than the maximum
$50 fine the state could collect for a seat
belt violation, and was therefore
unreasonable under the Fourth
Amendment, she said.
Police officers at the side of a road
shouldn’t have to figure out where to
draw that line, Souter wrote on behalf of
himself and an unusual lineup of justices.
“Tliere is no dispute that Officer Turek
liad probable cause to believe that Atwater
had committed a crime in his presence.
She admits that neither she nor her
children were wearing scat belts,” Souter
wrote for the majority.
“Turek was accordingly authorized
(but) not required... to make a custodial
arrest without balancing costs and benefits
to determine whether or not Atwater's
iutcsI was in some sense necessary.”
Atwater's arrest was surely
embarrassing and might not have been
necessary, but it was nonetheless
constitutional, Souter wrote. Such cases
arc rare, and don’t merit “development
of a new and distinct brnly of constitutional
law,” lie wrote.
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